278 DOWNING STREET [FOREIGN OFFICE
With the fall of Aleppo on the 26th October 1918,
the conclusion of the armistice with Turkey four
days later, and the consequent withdrawal from the
Mosul vilayet on the 8th November of the Turkish
army in Mesopotamia, the whole area which had
formed the subject of the correspondence with
Sherif Hussein and of the Sykes-Picot Agreement
passed into British military occupation. The war
with Turkey was over, though peace was not to be
concluded for some years, and the British and
French Governments immediately announced, in
what became known as the Anglo-French Declara-
tion of November 1918, that their object in pursuing
the war in the East was the complete and definite
liberation of the peoples so long oppressed by the
Turks, and the establishment of national govern-
ments and administrations drawing their authority
from the initiative and free choice of the native
populations. In order to give effect to these inten-
tions, France and Great Britain were agreed to
encourage and assist in the establishment of indi-
genous governments and administrations in Syria
and Mesopotamia.
During the early months after the Armistice the
same optimism was felt in London about the dura-
tion of the peace negotiations as had been felt in
1914 about the duration of the War. It never en-
tered anyone's mind that to make peace with
Turkey would take almost exactly as long as it had
taken to fight her, and that so far as Mesopotamia
was concerned no less than seven years would
pass before final agreement had been reached.
It was, however, realised that peace must first
be made with Germany, and until this had
been done the Allies must remain in military